(CBS Local)– A few months ago, Kevin Bacon and Aldis Hodge were the names creating buzz around Showtime’s “City On A Hill.”

After Sunday’s season finale, Amanda Clayton proved that her character Cathy Ryan was one of the most interesting on the show. The Ryan family showed how desperation pushes people to do things they never imagined and how to step up when lives are altered forever.

This was a dream role for the Rhode Island native for a number of reasons.

“I grew up in that time and Cathy to me is a lot of the women that I knew growing up,” said Clayton in an interview with CBS Local’s DJ Sixsmith. “My mom, my aunt, my grandmothers. I love the that the women on this show are not victims. There is always this sense to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, get stuff done, and figure it out. It’s all about getting it done and I love that New England grit.”

“City On A Hill” takes viewers back to the 1990s when Boston was plagued with issues of gun violence and racial injustice. It also forced both civilians and law enforcement officials to bend the rules when the situation became desperate.

“The whole show is based on the Boston Miracle, which is the course of the 90s in Boston when the Boston PD [police department], state police, and FBI cleaned up the city,” said Clayton. It was this very unprecedented thing. You see something that looks very legit on paper, but then you look at the inner-workings of what was really going on. There was very unscrupulous behavior, but it was also people doing the best with what they had. In Charlestown, it was taught how to go rob cars or rob a bank. It was passed down and you were brought into the gang and then you went to go work in the grocery store or the salon while you raised your family.”

In addition to unpacking all these issues, Clayton also had a front row seat to watch Bacon and Hodge deliver great acting performances. The show will return for season two and Clayton is excited to see where it goes.

“It was amazing and I didn’t get to witness enough of it because we were on two different sides of the world,” said Clayton. “A lot of it felt like we were filming two different shows. It wasn’t until the very end that we did the court scene together. That scene itself we got to watch Aldis to his thing. I got to have one small scene with Kevin when the FBI comes in raids the house. It was great and there was no weak link.”